


Everyone in Skyhold ends up with a smol dwarf in their bed at some point or another

by Kaelynisfree



Series: Fade Breakout AU [7]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect
Genre: Castless Dwarf Origin, Character Study, Dwarf Warden - Freeform, Fluff, Gen, Rogue Warden, Sleepy Cuddles, sleeping, sleeping habits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-29
Updated: 2016-04-29
Packaged: 2018-06-05 08:24:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6697288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaelynisfree/pseuds/Kaelynisfree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s not like anyone expected the dead Hero of Ferelden to show up at Skyhold to help with the Inquisition. But there she is, riding on Hawke’s shoulders, singing drinking songs with the Champion (who had also supposedly perished) and a lady in very strange armor they keep calling Shepard. </p><p>They also don’t expect her to still be 20 years old, bright eyed and youthful as the day she slew the archdemon.</p><p>And what they really don’t expect is to find her in their beds, sleeping and stealing all of the blankets. Although at times like these, it’s hard to know what they should expect. Sometimes people come back from the dead. And sometimes small dwarves get sleepy and fall asleep in random beds. It seems unlikely, but sometimes, these things just happen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Everyone in Skyhold ends up with a smol dwarf in their bed at some point or another

Varric isn’t surprised when he finds the Warden curled in the center of his bed, blankets curled around her so she appears as a small lump in the center of the mattress.

He sighs, grabbing another blanket for himself and gently shoves her over to one side. “Hey, Hero, you can’t take up the whole thing; this dwarf’s gotta sleep too, you know.”

He hears a muffled groan from the blanket pile and laughs as it scoots to the edge, blanket, pillow and all. Damn, Hawke is right about her being “too adorable for her own good.”

Once she settles again, Varric lays down with his blanket, takes one more look at the mumbling pile before closing his eyes to sleep. This is fine.

A minute later he jumps when cold toes touch his leg. He opens an eye and sees a single leg free from its shroud. He snorts. She mumbles something in her sleep, but doesn't move her foot.

Yeah, this is fine.

——

One night, she goes to sleep alone and when she wakes up, her warden, her friend, is asleep on the other side, holding her hand.

Leliana expects it. Finding the small dwarf curled up at her side in the morning reminds her of the Blight. So much time has passed since they traveled together. It’s troubling to wake up looking upon the same face she used to see, all those years ago, un-aged and unchanged. She reaches out to move a stray hair from Natia’s cheek and sighs.

She will never quite understand how the Maker works.

—

Morrigan wants to be upset. They were never friends before, why would they start getting along now?

Her head lolls back onto her pillow and Natia stirs. She hadn’t been there when Morrigan fell asleep.

While finding a small dwarf in her bed hadn’t been a problem for her in over ten years, there’s a part of her that is happy (is that what that is?) that she’s alive.

Something spared Natia Brosca from her idiotic mistake. Heroes. Morrigan can feel Natia breath beside her and she can’t help but roll her eyes.

“You can stay,” she decides.

The dwarf responds by throwing an arm over Morrigan and Morrigan does not rip it off. She “gently” tosses it off her.

“Do not touch me,” she offers when a sad mew leaves Natia’s mouth. “And don’t give me that.”

Natia moves to curl up at Morrigan’s side. Morrigan shoves her, less gently this time, to the side.

No, they are definitely not going to spoon. It’s not like they’re friends.

——

Bull lets her down easy when the flirting doesn’t cease. She’s too young and besides, his interests lie elsewhere. The flirting continues, but it doesn’t hold the same questions that it had previously. He doesn’t mind; she’s sharp, funny, and from what he’s seen, great in a fight. She’d be a good addition to the Chargers.

So when he finds a distinct Natia shaped lump in his bed he is a little confused. This is a strange way to make a move.

And when he steps a little further into his quarters and sees Cole sitting on the floor next to the bed holding her hand, he is decidedly more confused. Weirded out even.

He opens his mouth to speak but Cole cuts him off with a whisper. “She’s sleeping.”

“I can see that,” Bull replies with a matching whisper. “But why is she sleeping in my bed?”

“She didn’t want to bother anyone else.”

Bull grunts, watching the dwarf shift. “Doesn’t really explain why you’re here, though.”

Cole keeps her hand in his. “It hurts to sleep alone. She hates to ask. Feels weak, not like a hero at all.”

Bull has no idea how to respond to that. “Ah.”

The young warden’s breathing is even and she turns a little, keeping hold of Cole’s hand. She doesn’t really take up that much space…

Cole looks up at Bull, placing Natia’s hand back onto the bed. He doesn’t say anything else, he knows what Bull is thinking, and instead quietly gets up and leaves.

When Cole is gone, Bull slips into bed, leaving space between him and the Warden. She stirs.

“Hey, kid?”

She blinks up at him, and manages to mumble a “yeh?”

“Next time just ask, ok?”

——

Cullen and Josephine are chatting in the War Room early one morning and Leliana waits outside, knowing the moment she enters their levity will stop.

“-and I turn over and there she is. In my bed. The Hero of Ferelden.”

Josephine stifles a laugh. “What did you do, Commander?”

“Well, I politely asked her what in the Maker’s name was she doing in my bed!”

“And she said?”

“‘Sleeping.’” There’s a small pause, as if Josephine is waiting for him to finish his sentence. She lets out a huff of air when he doesn’t.

“That’s all she said?”

He laughs. “Yes. I said ’What are you doing in my bed?’ and she said ‘Sleeping.’”

Leliana tries hard not to laugh, covering her mouth, but leans into the door to hear better.

“It was confounding, really. So I told her, you know, thank you for saving my life all those years ago, but I wasn’t really… interested in any advances she might be making on me. To which she replied ‘me neither’.”

Josephine is laughing fully now, Cullen joining her through his own confusion. “And then she turned over and went right back to sleep!”

“So, what did you do when she fell back asleep?”

“What could I do? I got up, got ready, and left her there to sleep. It would be rude to wake her up again, wouldn’t it?”

——

“Small dwarf in my bed!” Sera says one morning, peering over her covers at her new bedmate.

“Yup,” Natia replies, yawning.

“A twee dwarf who won’t steal all of the blankets?”

Natia nods.

“Promise?”

Natia snorts. “I promise.”

“Good,” Sera says, throwing a leg over the Warden. “There’s enough for sharing anyway.”

——

There is a small knock at Shepard’s door in the middle of the night a few months into their stay at Skyhold. She collects her weapon to wait for another knock.

A moment after the second knock, she cracks the door open, her eyes narrowing.

A man with a mustache. Dorian. That was his name, right?

“I found this in my bed and thought perhaps you’d lost it.”

He holds Natia in his arms, the dwarf clinging to him, arms around his neck, legs around his waist. Judging by the expression on his face, he is in distress.

“Please help. She won’t wake up. Or let go.”

Shepard puts her sword down and opens the door fully, biting her lip to contain her laughter.

“See, look!” He releases his hold on her, throwing his arms up in the air, which only prompts the Warden to hold on tighter around his neck.

“I’ve been carrying her around like this for at least a half hour,” he wheezes.

“Here, if you get her to release her fingers,” she says, reaching for Natia’s arms around Dorian’s neck. “She’ll find something else to cling to.”

As if by magic, Natia lets go of her grip, and twists towards Shepard. “Come on Brosca, time for sleep.”

Natia groggily nods, completely detaching from the mage in order to cling to Shepard.

“She was curled up on the edge of my bed like some sort of oversized cat.”

Shepard snorts, shifting her weight so Natia sits more comfortably in her arms.

“I am not sure if you’ve noticed, but she’s very strange,” Dorian adds as he watches the exchange. Shepard snorts again, closing the door before he can add a goodnight or any other extraneous comment he thinks might be necessary.

“Natia… what were you doing in Dorian’s room?”

Natia shrugs as Shepard carries her to the bed. “Got lost, then got sleepy. This place is too big.”

Shepard laughs, depositing Natia gently onto the bed. “You would have wrecked havoc on the Normandy.”

——

Josephine tries to prepare herself for it. She’s heard stories and rumors about the Warden randomly falling asleep in other peoples’ beds, and it seems harmless, endearing even. But when she wakes up one morning and the Warden is so close that their faces are nearly touching, she jumps about 3 feet into the air with a loud shriek.

The Warden jumps awake and there is a knife in her hand, scanning the room for intruders. “Where is it, what’s wrong?”

Josephine breathes, hand clutching her chest. “You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

Natia looks at Josephine, and then to her knife. “Oh. Sorry.” She hurries to put the knife away, worried expression on her face. “Didn’t mean to.”

Josephine doesn’t know why, but she can’t stand thinking the Warden might feel bad about this. She quickly tries to rectify the situation. “Oh, don’t be sorry; it’s alright. I was just startled. That is all… I mean…”

She stares at her for a moment trying to think a way to save this. She steps towards the bed. “… did you sleep alright?”

Natia blinks for a moment before answering. “…Yeah... actually, I did? These sheets you have are amazing. Orlesian?”

Josephine shakes her head with a smile. “No, they are Antivan. Antivan Silk.”

“Well, they’re amazing.”

Josephine laughs. “Thank you.”

Thank you? Yes, thank you for giving me a heart attack and complimenting my bedding. That seemed a proper way to start the morning.

——

When Blackwall finds her, he nearly flops on top of her before realizing she’s there. Strange little thing. He tells no-one, and instead lets her stay in his bed while he sleeps in a chair.

The next morning when he wakes up, she is gone, but there is a plate of warm breakfast on his nightstand with note next to it that says “thanks.”

——

Cassandra sleeps like a brick usually, and doesn’t notice anything until she wakes up the next morning. She groans when she feels the presence of someone smaller than her in bed next to her.

“Warden. You are in the wrong bed.”

Nothing.

Cassandra kicks. “Warden Brosca. Please see yourself out of my room, this instant.”

No movement.

Cassandra kicks again, harder this time so that the dwarf goes tumbling off the bed.

There is a small “mmmph!” and a thud as she hits the ground. This still doesn’t wake her up.

An exasperated noise leaves the Seeker’s lips and she resigns herself to this fate. “Fine. You can stay there. As long as I have my bed to myself.”

——

Vivienne is decidedly less nice than the Seeker.

“I’m not sure how you could have, dear, but I assume that you’ve gotten confused. You seem to think this bed is yours. It is, in fact, mine.”

Natia wakes up when she hears the mage talk at her. She’s really very tall and striking, standing over her like that.

“Good, you’re awake. No-one saw you come in, I trust?”

Natia scrunches her nose up. “No.”

“Good. Then no-one should see you leave, either.”

——

Solas is really not happy when she shows up. But mostly because she won’t stop calling him “egg” when she’s half asleep.

She can’t help it. He’s got such an egg-shaped face and the bald head doesn’t help.

He does something magic. She’s completely sure he sets a fire under her, so she throws a little more name calling before she leaves. Despite this, it’s all in good fun. She really does like the egg elf.

——

“Hawke, your dwarf was in my bed this morning.”

Hawke stirs, noting an incredibly tall Qunari lady looming above them. Why this. Why them?

“She won't wake up,” the Inquisitor says sharply.

A very grumpy Qunari lady, Hawke notes.

"Or leave."

Hawke sits up in their bed and squints at the Inquisitor.

“Since when do I have my own dwarf? This is news."

She tries to hold her composure, but she really just doesn’t have time for this bullshit. ”The small one. Your companion.”

Hawke stretches, yawning. “Are you sure you aren't talking about Varric?”

The Inquisitor huffs. ”I’m quite sure Varric Tethras is not in my bed."

“Then what dwarf is in your bed?”

“The Warden!”

Hawke’s eyes widen. “Blackwall is sleeping in your bed???" They pause a moment, considering. “That’s kind of racist; just because he has a beard doesn't mean he's a dwarf.”

The Inquisitor fumes. Something tells Hawke she does not want to be dealing with this.

Hawke rubs the sleep away from their eyes and yawns. “Besides, that sounds like something you and he need to work out.”

The Inquisitor’s jaw clenches as she gives them a sharp icy glare.

“Get your dwarf, Hawke. Or I'll toss her out the window."

Hawke rolls their eyes, but starts to get up. “She'd stab you before you could pick her up. But I'll go.”

Hawke carries Natia out of the Inquisitor’s room a few minutes later, and when they’re on their way back, Natia opens an eye.

“I just made 20 gold off the Iron Bull and Dorian.”  
“For what, pissing off the Inquisitor? It’s not very hard, Natia.”

“No, for breaking into her room and sleeping in her bed without getting murdered. Dorian thought I’d end up dead, or at least with several broken bones.”

“Living life on the edge, Brosca. And for what, 20 gold?”

She winks at him. “You know it, Hawke.”

“Nice!” They high five as they turn a corner and Natia feigns sleep again.

**Author's Note:**

> This is from an au in which The Warden, Hawke, and Commander Shepard (mass effect) all end up dying in their respective games, meet in a bar in the fade and break out. They end up traveling Thedas, wrecking havoc, and cuddling the with entire inquisition. It's great.


End file.
